Niall Ferguson withdraws critical assessment of Crypto and DLT

Prominent British historian and author of "The rise of moneyNiall Ferguson has withdrawn the pessimistic claims he had previously made regarding the future providers of bitcoin and distributed ledger technology. The comments come one month after Ferguson was announced as a consultant to the Stablecoin Ampleforth.

Niall Ferguson draws back earlier criticisms of cryptocurrencies

While giving the keynote speech on the first day of the Australian Financial Review Business Summit last week, Ferguson said he was "very wrong" when he doubted the potential applications for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

Regarding earlier statements in which he predicted that virtual currencies "would turn out to be utterly deceptive," Ferguson said he was "wrong to believe that there is no … using a blockchain technology-based form of Currency."

Regarding price developments, Ferguson noted that despite the bearish trend last year, the BTC price is "still far from zero".

Ferguson's comments seem to follow the remarks made during a Bank of England seminar in which he predicted that cryptocurrencies will be "the financial system of the future."

Ferguson also expressed skepticism about Fiat-backed cryptocurrencies like the Tether, even though he had joined Stablecoin Ampleforth as adviser last month.

At that time, Ferguson said, "Ampleforth's mission to reinvent money to protect the freedom of the individual, and to create a payment system that treats everyone equally, makes me feel drawn." According to Ampleforth's website, the project wants to "make money" that's both gold like; and stable, like Fiat. "

In an interview with Breaker last month, Ferguson described the existing payment system as "a relic of the 70s". He noted, however, that "the experiment launched by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 is not yet complete," adding, "Owning a Bitcoin today is an option for Satoshi's experiment."

What do you think of Niall Ferguson's recent comments on virtual currencies? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The contribution of Niall Ferguson Retract's Critical Appraisal by Crypto and DLT first appeared in the Bitcoin News.